As a new mother, seeing the babies and children in the Superdome and at the Convention Center is especially wrenching, and I'm sure any parent will agree. I'm sitting here in NYC feeling sick with anxiety watching this catastrophe continue to snowball and desperately wishing I could do something more than just donate money and hope it reaches the people who need it. Below the fold is my idea, but I need some suggestions.
On my to-do list this weekend is cleaning out my daughters' dresser of all the clothes she's outgrown in the last 6 months, and there are a lot of them. I was going to pass them on to another new mother friend, but this morning it hit me that she's more than financially capable of dressing her baby, but meanwhile in NO and now in Houston, there are mothers who can't even get food and water for their babies, and who have lost everything. And so I wonder, how do I get my baby clothes down to the babies that need them?
I also post on a message board for mothers here in NYC, and last night somebody floated the idea of a
mother's relief group, gathering diapers, formula, baby clothes, etc for the refugees. That part, I think would be pretty easy to put together, putting out the word on message boards and via email chains, but what happens then? The hard part is getting it to NO and Houston and making sure that the mothers who need it, get it.
Is there anybody set up in Houston & NO to coordinate an effort like that? Are there organizations with the capabilities to distribute goods? Clearly the Gov't agencies are completely unable to cope with even the most basic subsistence needs, so there's no point in expecting them to step up and help.
Like everybody, I feel sick watching what's happening (or more importantly
not happening) down there, but also like lots of people, I don't know where to go to help. I thought if anybody would know, it would be the Kossacks.